Oil

Originally Posted by northwind

Someone told me once that Castrol colour their oils according to grade and viscosity. This might be rubbish though.

I like the idea of this - I recently changed mine with some Shell oil which is a dark honey colour. When you look at it in the sight glass, it looks almost black. I find this a little disconcerting...

Originally Posted by lukemillar

I like the idea of this - I recently changed mine with some Shell oil which is a dark honey colour. When you look at it in the sight glass, it looks almost black. I find this a little disconcerting...

most oils are a dark honey colour when there new, its only once there used, they go black.

Originally Posted by bikageboy

most oils are a dark honey colour when there new, its only once there used, they go black.

What, after you just put it in!? I was standing in the shade but still. Red sounds good!

[jambo]

I put Castrol GPS in the Kwak for it's 3rd service IIRC, it was very pretty, but I'm not convinced it'll be any better long term than the Motul stuff I usually use...

That said if you go to castrol's website there are some scary articles written by MCN about them running CBR motors with different oils for 20,000 mile equivalents without stopping or a change of fluids running on a machine that constantly has them doing simulated laps of Brands Hatch with Jerremy Mcwilliams riding... Gotta love datalogging

Not sure it's relevant to my commute but a good read

OIL is OIL, don't worry

as long as it meet the viscosity requirements for your climate, and grade requirements, SG or better you are ok

even adding non spec energy saving car oil is better than being low


change it per recommended schedule every 3500-4000 miles, no more, no less, keep it topped off, don't do extended wheelies and your engine will keep you happy for thousands and thousands of miles. at least that's the way its been for me, so far for 130,000 miles

The 2-stroke oil for my old Aprilia was a lovely green colour, mmm...
You can get strawberry-scented 2-stroke oil too, seriously.

Originally Posted by RandyO

even adding non spec energy saving car oil is better than being low

Perfectly true. I ran my SV on semi-synth car oil for 5000 miles (two changes) and it was fine, clutch didn't slip either.

change it per recommended schedule every 3500-4000 miles, no more, no less

I would have to say that changing your oil more often (every 2500 - 3000 miles) would do it the world of good, so using cheap oil (like Halfords' own) is not going to be a big deal if it gets changed very frequently.

I think it's also worth flushing out the engine occasionally, not bothering with any special flushing oil, but using two litres of cheap semi-synth, running the bike for a couple of minutes, and then draining it off and refilling with yet more fresh. This way you really do have fresh oil rather than an amalgam of old and new which is what happens normally.


.

[quote="jonboy
I would have to say that changing your oil more often (every 2500 - 3000 miles) would do it the world of good, so using cheap oil (like Halfords' own) is not going to be a big deal if it gets changed very frequently.

I think it's also worth flushing out the engine occasionally, not bothering with any special flushing oil, but using two litres of cheap semi-synth, running the bike for a couple of minutes, and then draining it off and refilling with yet more fresh. This way you really do have fresh oil rather than an amalgam of old and new which is what happens normally.


.[/quote]


changing the oil more frequently won't hurt, unless you do something stupid like cross thread your drainplug, or accidently contaminate the oil (every additional time you work on a bike you increase the odds)

but it has no benefit, modern oils can easily retain their lubrication and cleansing properties for the recommended interval, with probably a double or even tripple safety margin

I might change my opinion if my SV blows up and I see somebody with more than 130,000 on their original engine

After reading a similar thread on here a few months back, the concensus was that it didn't really matter that much, so I bought some cheap 10W-40 from Halfords and I don't seem to be having any problems...